Dating Season

Single?  Use a dating app!!!

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/05/us/dating-sunday-trnd/index.html

The First Sunday of the year is now called “Dating Sunday”

Seemingly now that the new year is upon us, with the concept of “New Year, New You”, that means it is time to get going on dating.  Dating Sunday is the day to get your bio out there on the dating sites and get the process going..

Seemingly, Christmas and New Years are over.  If you are single, you made it through another Holiday season with your parents and friends asking, “Are you dating anybody?”.

It is also the time for breakups.  “I was with <person X> over the holidays and he/she just isn’t the one for me!!”.  You tried, but it isn’t going to work out.  So, Dating Sunday, dump the old person and get started on a new person. 

The many matchmaking websites (and there seem to be plenty) see their numbers go way up on Dating Sunday.

From the article:
“Bumble, for example, is expecting a 30% increase in new users this Sunday alone, along with a 15% increase in user activity compared to an average day. Last year, Dating Sunday was the highest registration day in the app's history, a representative said.”

“And they're not the only app to report higher numbers. Match is expecting an 80% increase in new users on the website on Sunday -- in 2019, the site saw a 69% jump on Dating Sunday. CoffeeMeetsBagel, another dating app, saw similar numbers in 2018, with a 75% spike in new-user sign ups.”

Why does Dating Sunday happen?

"It's a mix of New Year's resolutions, post-holiday breakups and Valentine's Day around the corner," a Bumble representative told CNN

The concept of “New Year, New You” suggest that January is the time to get going on that dating “relationship.  

The article said that “Most couples now meet online”!!!

All of this is spurred by the rapid increase of online dating as a main way for couples to meet.

Meeting online has become the most popular way couples meet, reports a Stanford University study published in 2019.

The study, which analyzes survey data from heterosexual couples, found that the most traditional ways of meeting for heterosexual couples -- through family or church, in the neighborhood or in school -- have all been declining since 1940.

In 2009, meeting through friends was the most common way heterosexual couples met -- but that has changed in the last 10 years.

"Meeting through friends has declined sharply, and meeting online has continued to grow," the study says. "As a result of the decline in meeting through friends and the rise in meeting online, heterosexual couples in the US are now much more likely to meet online than to meet any other way."

Online dating first took the lead over meeting through friends in 2013, the study says. The increase was spurred by the frequent use of smartphones and the study argues that because the internet makes it easy to meet people independently, people rely less and less on family and friends to play matchmaker.

The findings are backed up by another survey, done by the Pew Research Center in 2015. The nonprofit found that 15% of all US adults have used online dating sites or apps, up from 11% in 2013.

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And, Dating Season follows “Cuffing Season”.

Cuffing Season is like getting handcuffs put on you and your dating partner.  You are ‘going steady’ or even engaged now.  Cuffing Season tends to be in the fall - October and November, where a person is thinking of having somebody to take home to Mom and Dad for Christmas.  Do you want to go to Christmas Parties alone - or have somebody (your dating partner) go with you?  

So, as a senior who has been out of the dating scene for years, the concept of online dating - and Dating Sunday as well as Cuffing Season seem strange.  I went back to college for my master’s degree for two reasons - to get my advanced degree - and to see if I could find a date!!  

I do know of happy couples who met online.  Do you know any?

So, for the singles in the world - “Good Luck” in your pursuit of happiness (as in a partner/spouse)!!!  

Hugs!!

Karen